Datasheet

14
Part I: AutoCAD 101
Figure 1-1: Cities, houses, little toy trains — what do you want to draw today?
The Importance of Being DWG
To take full advantage of AutoCAD in your work environment, you need to be
aware of the DWG file format, the format in which AutoCAD saves drawings.
Here are some DWG facts to keep in mind:
✓ In some cases, an older release of AutoCAD can’t open a DWG file that’s
been saved by a newer AutoCAD release.
✓ A newer release of AutoCAD can always open files saved by older
versions.
✓ Some previous AutoCAD releases can open files saved by the subse-
quent one or two versions. For example, AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD
2008 can open DWG files saved by AutoCAD 2009. That’s because
Autodesk didn’t change the DWG file format between those releases.
However, the drawing file format did change with AutoCAD 2010, so
drawings created in the current release must be saved in an older
format to be openable in AutoCAD 2009 and earlier.
✓ You can use the Save As option in newer releases to save the file to
some older DWG formats. In fact, AutoCAD 2012 can save as far back as
AutoCAD Release 14, which dates all the way back to 1997!
Table 1-1 shows which versions (described later in this chapter) use which
DWG file formats.
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